Victorian Costuming

Category Archives: vacations

My last post was a “trials and tribulations while on vacation” post. But the truth is, it was still nice to get away from the cold, see another place in this world and to meet new people.

Though the weather was not perfect, it was warmer than home.

And there were plenty of lovely views.

The hubby and I did leave the hotel on one excursion. The first stop was a sugar cane plantation. Now a days, the plantations are mechanized but they had a demonstration of how it used to be done. They also explained the planting and growth cycle for sugar cane.

The next stage of the tour was to a former sugar cane processing plant. They explained how that worked which I always like. There used to be a show on TV about how things are made. I find that fascinating for some reason.

The plant no longer functions but it houses a train museum.

This was my primary reason for wanting to take this tour. I’m always working. Some of the old fellows that I work with in my job worked on the railroad and I thought they’d appreciate pictures of old steam trains in another country. I took more pictures of that than anything else! As we speak, I am waiting for the guy who is going to print the pictures up in a large easy to see format.

The numbers on the train have a meaning. The first number is how the train is powered. 1 means “steam”. The second is how strong the train is. When we tried ask if it was measured in horse power, the Spanish tour guides looked at us blankly so I’m not sure. But, some trains had a second number of 1 and others had a 6 or a 7 so the above train is stronger than some and weaker than some. The last two numbers are its personal number. So the above train is the 18th in the 5 horse power (?) steam train group. The box immediately behind the engine has the name of the plantation it came from.

We then had a short ride on one of the old steam trains. It was a nice way to see some of the country side. We stopped at a shabby old station.

From there, our bus picked us up and took us into the city of Cardenas.

In Cardenas, we had a quick tour of a museum. To quick tour in my opinion!

There was some lovely items in there. And if you paid a fee, you could take photos. I didn’t because we weren’t going to be in there long enough. If I were to go again, I’d definitely find away to spend more time in there and I’d take pictures!

Across the street from the Museum was this lovely tree with the red leaves or flowers.

Cuba has wonderful people living there. They know how to make you feel special with just little things. Our maid was sweet! She kept leaving us notes and rearranging our bed sheets in cute ways. The first day she made two peacocks cuddling. She dressed the male in one of my scarves.

I called him the male because he seemed to have the tail. The next day, those dang peacocks really made themselves at home!

We found them reading in our bed!

I laughed my head off! This was actually one of the highlights for me!

So this concludes my vacation posts. I’m back in my Winter Wonderland and I’m back at work. Time to get back to my sewing projects and to get back on the HSF band wagon! Late with my entry…as usual.

It is time for my annual winter escape. In years past, I have arranged a bunch of posts to pop up on their own while I’m gone but that is not happening this year-to much crapola in my life the past two months. I will be back after a week of blissful rest (at least I hope it is blissful) and I will be fully recharged. (Well…at least less crabby….) Until then

I booked my winter vacation yesterday! I’m off to Cuba next winter! Veradero here I come!

I’m looking forward to what seems to be amazing beaches and amazing locals! I expect things to be like Mexico in terms of hearing Spanish all of the time (lovely language), seeing lovely buildings with some degree of wear and tear (thousands of people tromping through a hotel in a damp tropical climate makes for some issues but nothing that is vacation ruining) and dedicated staff trying to make a good living by making a good vacation for me. I have heard that Cuban food can be a bit more bland than what we are used to so I plan on eating a ton of amazing fresh bread and bringing my own ketchup and may be a spice bottle or two.

I’ve also done my research about sand flies. It seems I am one of those people who react badly to those damn things!

It was terrible. It itched like mad and it was not so much welts as my whole ankle swelled up into one big kankle. It went on for weeks after the trip. This year, I’m going prepared. I’ll be taking garlic pills and antihistamines before I leave and keeping that up, as well as a bug spray regime through out the trip. Any hint of a bite and I will be slathering in after bite lotions.

This will be the last of my rolled out posts. I will be back soon and I will respond to any comments that have been made here. Thanks for waiting and sticking with me while I was away and for the next few posts that will be vacation themed!

There will be photos! The horrifying thing is how much STUFF I have. I will definitely have to pare it down before Costume College. I would be SCREWED with luggage fees on a plane! At least there would be no winter wear on that trip!

In between catching up on the laundry and grocery shopping, I have been spending the remainder of my vacation in the sewing room. I have completed the 1872 Lilac Dreams bodice! Yeah me!

Truly Victorian 1872 Vested Bodice TV403

The white part has little white buttons running up it that the glare washes out but I was making myself crazy trying to get the fabric to not look blue and didn’t notice I had washed out the white part. Me thinks I need a better camera.

I think I may need to tack that bow down a bit more. It seems to be sitting a bit cockeyed.

That is how it is supposed to sit.

In addition to finishing the bodice, I have cut out and sewn two skirts a la assembly line style. There is a purple skirt to go with this bodice and a blue one for another project. I’m at the hand sewing stage now. They both might get some trim but I’m going to wait and see how they look with their bodice and over skirt first. They might not need anything…especially the purple as the pattern it pretty wild on its own.

I’m back from my annual pilgrimage to Mexico. The past two years, we have been going to Playa Del Carmen but this year we tried Cancun. Cancun wasn’t my cup of tea. It has a busy city/party place feel and I’m past that stage in life. But, I can’t say I had a bad time because I really didn’t.

There was fabulous views

Cute sites and photo ops

Interesting food…okay, I didn’t eat these because there was so much more to choose from. But I thought these were cute.

We saw a show with a fire-eater.

We had a catamaran ride. It was pretty wavy so Mr Victorian got a bit sea sick.

I tried sitting up front on the “hood” of the catamaran but it was so wavy I was sure I was going to slide right off my perch into the ocean. There was a sweet little Chilean Grandmother in the same “boat” as myself and we clung to each other for dear life. Once we moved to the back and sat in proper seats all was well. But, I made a friend for life. At the end we babbled to each other in our native tongues and she gave me a big hug and kiss on the cheek. That made me feel really good. I think of her as my adopted abuela (grandma).

While on our trip, we saw this ship which is part of the Captain Hook Dinner and Show.

I was so taken by the idea that we had to try it a couple of days later.